COURSE
DESCRIPTION: An
introduction to the historical person, Jesus of Nazareth, especially through
material from the recent “quest” for the historical Jesus. The course will
focus on the words and deeds of Jesus as they would
have been understood by his own contemporaries, and at new attempts to write a
biography of Jesus of Nazareth. We will further ask whether such attempts are
truly valid, given the factual knowledge at hand. Finally, we will investigate
the relevance of such work for the Christian of the late twentieth century.
Comparisons will be made to how Jesus was later understood and portrayed by his
followers and in popular media (e.g.,
art, literature, cinema).

COURSE OBJECTIVES: A student who successfully completes this
course will be able to:

1.Define
key terms relating to biblical study

2.Identify
& give dates for significant personages in the four canonical gospels

3.Outline
the key themes & characteristics of each of the four NT gospel portrayals
of Jesus

4.Discuss
the significance of each of these four views of Jesus as the messiah

5.Discuss
the cultural appropriation of these canonical portraits in popular films of
different eras

6.Evaluate
the gaps and spaces in that appropriation as well as the positive use of the
canonical images

·The
Bible—a study edition with cross-references and annotations, not a paraphrase.
Good study editions are available for the NAB, RSV, or NRSV.

·Aland,
Kurt, ed. Synopsis of the Four Gospels. Revised English Edition. New
York: United Bible Societies, 1985. ISBN #0826705006. If you already own
another Gospel parallels text (i.e.,
Funk or Throckmorton), there is no need to buy this one. If you are on a tight
budget, this text could be shared with a classmate; there also are on-line
synopses, including ones with the Gospel
of Thomas. See Dr. McGinn’s Bible web for
links. If you have or would like to develop facility with the original Greek
texts, the alternatives of choice include:

oAland,
Kurt, ed., Greek-English Edition of the Synopsis QuattuorEvangeliorum Synopsis of
the Four Gospels, Tenth Edition. [Greek and English on facing
pages, with Latin forematter] New York: United Bible Societies.
ISBN #3438054051.

·Miner,
C. E. The 'Filmlical'
Jesus: A Critically Evaluative Review of the Jesus Film Genre
(Dissertation, School of Theology at Claremont, 1995; Dissertation Abstracts
International 56, no. 12, June 1996)

·Schweitzer,
Albert. The Quest of the Historical Jesus: A Critical
Study of Its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede. Albert Schweitzer
Library; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. ISBN 0801859344.
[On-line text: Albert Schweitzer, The Quest
of the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of its Progress from Reimarus to
Wrede.
Translated by W. Montgomery. From the First German Ed. Von Reimarus zu Wrede, 1906. With a Preface by F. C. Burkitt. First English Ed., 1910. Published in Great
Britain by A&C Black, Ltd.]

CLASS FORMAT: The course will be conducted in
seminar style. Formal lectures and student presentations will be complemented
by active, critical student discussions on the basis of the primary texts,
films, and secondary literature. Discussions and essays will take the place of
written quizzes or examinations, although students may opt for a written final examination
instead of the course project.

ASSUMPTIONS regarding prior coursework. Students with limited NT background are
encouraged to consult one or both of the following texts: Helmut Koester, Introduction
to the New Testament (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1980);
two volumes. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her (New York: Crossroad,
1984, 1994). In particular, these books may be helpful to students who are
uncertain about their NT background.

1.One CRITICAL REVIEW (due
session 7) of a crucial book-length study of the Jesus of history
(preferably one of the recommended texts or one of the “classics” of the early
quest) OR a foreign-language article/essay/chapter OR two English-language
articles/essays/chapters. (To ensure variety, choices will be made in
consultation with the instructor and other members of the seminar.) Each review
should follow the basic structure outlined in the “How to” page. In sum, the review will include three main sections:
(1) a concise statement of the author's thesis; (2) a summary of the author’s supporting
evidence; (3) an evaluation of the persuasiveness of the
author’s argument. This should be followed by 2–3 questions suitable for class
discussion of the reading.

2.FILM
CRITIQUES (due
sessions 4 & 9) on two of the feature-length films used in the
course, including at least one of the “exploratory” type.
Each critique should follow the basic structure outlined in the “How to” page. In sum, this means it will include three
sections: (1) how this presentation compares with your prior understanding of
Jesus; (2) what questions it raises that can be answered by historical
research; (3) what questions or challenges it raises for current theology. As
always, you are welcome to add other points of interest and/or questions you would
like to discuss in the seminar.

3.Students may
elect to substitute a CREATIVE HISTORY PAPER
for one of the film critiques or a critical review of an article/essay/chapter.
(Follow this link for the description of this kind of
assignment.) The due date for the CHP would be the same as the assignment for
which it is a substitute.

4.The FINAL PROJECT (due last
session). I envision four alternatives for this, which we can discuss at
the first class meeting:

One option would be a collaborative endeavor involving
the entire seminar. The object of this project would be to develop an
outline of our own life-of-Jesus film (based on the canonical gospels, the
secondary literature, and the Jesus films used in this course) and expand
on a few segments by creating “Storyboards“ of the action, set, etc—
everything necessary to indicate how that segment would be produced. These storyboards for the project would be developed by 2- or
3-person teams (a pair of graduate students, or one undergraduate
and 1–2 grad students). Group labor should be divided equitably, but it is
up to the team to decide how that would be done. (E.g., a team might decide that the undergraduate
would have primary responsibility for the visual aspects of the
storyboard, while the graduate student(s) would have primary responsibility
for the content.) Regardless, all the team members will be assumed to be
working together on the complete
project, and would receive one group grade.

The second option would be a collaborative endeavor
similar to the above option, but more focused. Instead of doing an entire film-script
outline, teams would choose one scene or event in the life of Jesus and
develop a set of three or more different scenarios for how that might have developed; the way it is presented in
one or more of the existing Gospels could represent one of the options,
but at least one of these scenarios should present a novel way of viewing
that scene or event in Jesus' life. As with the preceding option, “Storyboards“ would be generated to detail how
those scenes/scenarios would be staged.

The third option would be to do a traditional synoptic analysis of a gospel passage and compare
it to how that text or scene was used in 2–3 life-of-Jesus films. The
essay would culminate in a discussion of the theological significance of
the changes as they relate to the socio-cultural develops of that same period.

The fourth option would be to write an essay that
surveys an image or character in the life-of-Jesus genre as it develops
over a period of time, preferably the 20th century, with an exposition of
why you think those changes were made and what is their theological
significance.